Formal loops IV: Chiral differential operators
Abstract
Description
We relate the gerbe of sheaves of chiral differential operators (CDO) on a algebraic variety X, studied by Gorbounov, Malikov and Schechtman, to the determinantal gerbe of the formal loop space LX introduced in our earlier paper. The liens of the two gerbes are related by a version of the symplectic action homomorphism. The determinantal gerbe of LX has a factorization structure in the spirit of Beilinson and Drinfeld. In our identification, sheaves of CDO correspond to factorizing objects of this factorization gerbe.